


Friends with Benefits

by Asynca



Series: Ready, Set, Go! - Speed Prompts [29]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Slash, because I'm all about the chase
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-20 23:10:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10672728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asynca/pseuds/Asynca
Summary: Prompted on Tumblr to write some Sombra/Katya. I chose to write some very early pre-slash.Speed prompt, written in 122 minutes.





	Friends with Benefits

Katya should have expected _that woman_ would be back very soon. ‘Sombra’, was it? Whatever her name was, Katya should have known. People like that didn’t stay away from people like her for very long.

When she returned, she'd cause another security breach, Katya assumed. Maybe alarms, drama, chaos—that seemed like the sort of situation Sombra liked to manufacture. She clearly had a flair for drama, after all.

What Katya _didn’t_ expect was to wander into her office late at night after most of her staff had gone home and find herself suddenly face to face with _—_

 _God! That woman,_ who was sitting poised on Katya’s executive table, legs casually crossed, shaking a Chinese Baoding Ball beside her ear and listening to it chime. “Huh,” she said, looking at the ball. “Are these really all that relaxing? I always wondered.”

Katya’s breath caught in her throat. “ _You_.”

“Yup,” Sombra said, pushing herself off the desk and doing a little bow. “Me. Did you miss me? I bet you missed me. I’d miss me, and I bet it gets _pretty_ boring around here…”

Sombra had the look of someone who was allergic to ‘boring’. Katya, on the other hand, had come to welcome ‘boring’. It meant peace and stability; those short periods of time where Katya could get a full night’s rest and not worry about Russia or her daughter’s future. She didn’t say as much: as if she’d share something so private with _this woman_. “What do you want?”

Sombra put the Chinese Baoding Ball back in its nest, theatrically shrugging. “Oh, I don’t know? World peace? A different hair colour? Actually, come to think of it, amiga, I’m pretty hungry right now, you know it’s a long flight here…” When Katya looked less than impressed, Sombra dropped the theatrics. “Actually, I did some research on my brand new friend and found some very, very interesting reading material on her, so I thought I’d come pay her a visit. You know, see how she is.”

That seemed unlikely. “If you’re here to threaten me again, don’t bother. Just tell me what you want.”

Sombra scoffed. “Geez, you’re not even going to tell me how you are? You’re not even going to ask how _I_ am?” She was grinning. “A good friend would ask me how I am.”

That grin _grated_ Katya. These power games grated her. She didn’t know if part of the whole blackmail arrangement was that she was expected to play Sombra’s little games as well—and if it was, she didn’t know how she was going to manage it. She did the best she could. “I think you know how I am,” she said clearly. “I think you know how far back your agents sent our mech program. We’ll be months behind our deployment date. And every day we don’t deploy, we lose another farm. Another town. More people to the Omnic extremists.”

Sombra looked unmoved. “Hey, but at least the board will keep you appointed as CEO, right? ‘Katya Volskaya, Saviour of Russia’? Can’t be Saviour of Russia if Russia doesn’t need to be saved, and no one needs mechs from Volskaya Industries if there isn’t a war. You won’t even need to bribe anyone.”

Did she really just— Well, she was right, but—“How _dare_ you. Russia is my _home_.”

Sombra gave her a tired look. “Spare me the rhetoric, I’ve seen all your emails. Talon and me, we did you a _big_ favour.” She took a step towards Katya. “And I’m about to do you another big favour, too.”

Katya wasn’t sure she wanted to know, so she didn’t ask.

“I know there’s a guy who’s been breathing down your neck about the program, right? Isn’t he related to the president somehow? Second cousin? Niece’s friend? I forget the details.” Katya had a feeling Sombra hadn’t forgotten the details at all: she meant the president’s _son_. “Anyway, word on the street is that he’s after a corporate position here. Chairman, right? Someone who’d have a _lot_ of power over you. That’s what people are saying.”

Katya didn’t know where this was going, so she opted to listen. The president’s son and her did _not_ see eye-to-eye, he was far more militant and Katya was and she knew _he_ was interested in being ‘Saviour of Russia’ so he could use that reputation to get elected himself, one day. Frankly, it worried her.

“Anyway,” Sombra continued. “Let’s just say I found out about a little thing he had going on at university. Did you know he was dating an Omnic girl for three whole years? The horror, right? I can’t believe he managed keep it hidden for so long.” She didn’t sound very horrified.

Katya wasn’t, either. Well, perhaps a little horrified about this woman’s apparent lack of scruples. But— _Russia_ would be horrified, and that was Sombra’s point. These photos could destroy him just like the ones Sombra had of her could destroy her. “Is that true?”

Sombra gave her a sideways grin and a big nod, and showed her some photos in the air. “All true, my friend, all true, and all here.” She took a memory stick out of her pocket, slipped it into Katya’s breast pocket, and patted the pocket once. “I’m sure they’ll come in handy if you need to use them one day.”

Katya… wasn’t so sure how to feel. On one hand, she was disgusted that Sombra thought that she, Katya, would put someone else in the same position she herself had been put in. On the other hand… if it was a choice between using the photos in defence of her country, or not using them and letting a megalomaniacal, egotistical maniac take centre stage….

Well, it was a tough choice. She almost wished she’d never have to make it. But she knew what she’d decide.

And… on realising that… suddenly, Sombra’s decision to blackmail her became a lot less evil and a lot more… well, she didn’t know what Sombra wanted, did she? Maybe _she_ had people she was protecting? Still, there were unanswered questions—the whole thing made her incredibly uneasy. “Why are you doing this?”

Sombra looked blankly at her. “Doing that?”

“Helping me. You could have just used these photos yourself to do exactly the same thing to him as you are to me.”

That, Sombra laughed at. “You know, I did think of that!” she said candidly. “But you’re way cuter than he is. And you’re definitely less crazy than he is, so…” She shrugged. “Easy choice. And besides, Katya—I can call you that, right? Katya?—we’re friends.”

This whole ‘friends’ thing made her uneasy, too. More games. “My _friends_ don’t usually blackmail me.”

“Not openly,” Sombra told her easily.  She took another step towards her. “But, see, I’m not like your other friends, Katya. I’m _way_ better.”

Katya was wholly unconvinced, and she couldn’t shake that deep uneasiness. “My _real_ friends would never—”

“— _Pfft._ How many people do you think are the Saviour of Russia’s friend because they like her as a person, amiga? Be serious. They’re all about what they can get out of you: believe me, I’ve read all their messages. The only difference with me is that I’m upfront about it: I like you because I can get information out of you,” she said easily, without any hesitation at all. Then, she paused, thinking. “Also, you didn’t flinch when I held a gun at you before, either, and that’s sort of cool, if you ask—”

“Do you have a point?”

“Yeesh,” Sombra said. “I was only trying to say the whole gun-thing was totally badass, that’s all. Anyway, my point from before is that, amiga, you’ve seen what I can do. Now imagine how useful I could be if _I_ was your friend, too. That’s a pretty… shall we say, _attractive_ proposition, right?”

There was something… about that choice of words. There was also something about how close she was standing, come to think of it. She assumed it was a cultural thing, but—

Sombra was looking directly at her. “I have another attractive proposition for you, too, Katya.” She let the words hang in the air for a moment. “As I was saying before, I came across some very, very interesting information about your time in the army. You had a friend, there, I think? Eva, wasn’t it? I think you were close to her. Very close.”

Katya’s blood ran cold. She knew _exactly_ what Sombra was referring to—even if she’d almost forgotten about it herself.

“It’s sad you lost touch with this Eva, I guess? But I understand why you don’t talk to her anymore, Katya. After all, Russia doesn’t look kindly on those sort of… friendships, does it?”

Katya felt sick. This woman was _dangerous._ “What do you want, Sombra?”

Sombra shrugged. She was always so casual. “Nothing in particular, amiga, I was just going to say that you and I have a lot more in common than you may—”

More in common than—was she trying to say that she was also a—

Katya sharply turned her head to look directly into Sombra’s eyes. Is _that_ what this visit was about? _More_ blackmail?! “Are you going to blackmail me to sleep with you as well? Is _that_ it?”

Sombra actually looked genuinely surprised, and perhaps even a little insulted. “Are you for real?” she said, as if expecting further blackmail from her was ludicrous. “Honestly, what sort of person do you take me for? I was just hoping that now we’re being honest with each other, that we could get to know each other a little better, maybe bond over the things we share, but, yeah, anyway….” she said, sliding off the table. “Perhaps it’s best if I just leave you with the photos of the president’s son for now.”

Not trusting Sombra for a single solitary second, Katya’s eyes followed her as she calmly and deliberately walked all the way to the door. She stood there for a moment, pausing to give Katya a deep, wicked grin over her shoulder. “Besides, amiga,” she said, “I won’t have to _blackmail_ you to sleep with me. Eventually, you’ll be _asking_ for it.”

Still giving Katya the wicked grin, she mouthed ‘adiós’, fanned her fingers in a wave, and then instead of using the door, she vanished into thin air.

 


End file.
